Hello, A yearly allocation for the LCRC cluster has been requested with the following updated information: Submitter/PI: Benoit Roux Project Name: kv Division: BIO Project title: Studies of voltage-vgated potassium channel Associated funding: NIH/NIGMS, R01-GM062342 "Computational studies of ion channels" INCITE from Office of Science Other Systems: BG/P, NCSA, PSC, KBT Science: Molecular dynamics of membrane proteins that are affected by the transmembrane voltage Project description: Voltage-gated potassium (Kv) channels are membrane proteins that respond to changes in the transmembrane potential by altering their conformation to allow the passive conduction of K+ ions across the cell membrane. These channels are tetrameric proteins, in which each subunit comprises six transmembrane (TM) helical segments (S1-S6). The ion conduction pore is located at the center of the tetrameric structure and is formed by the S5 and S6 helices from the four subunits. The first four segments (S1-S4) in each subunit form a voltage-sensing domain (VSD) that is located in the lipid membrane at the periphery of the central pore domain (PD). Upon depolarization of the membrane, the VSD in each subunit undergoes a voltage-dependent transition from a resting to an active conformation, which then leads the opening of the intracellular gate of the ion conduction pore. The conformational changes associated with the activation of Kv channels result in the transfer of an electric charge Delta-Q across the membrane, that can be measured experimentally as a small transient capacitive current. In the Shaker K+ channel, the "gating charge" corresponds to the transfer of 12-14 elementary charge (e) along the transmembrane electric field. Correspondingly, a change V in the membrane potential shifts the relative free energy of the closed and open conformations by V*Delta-Q. The gating charge DeltaQ is, thus, a key concept to explain how channel activation is coupled to the membrane potential. Initially postulated by Hodgkin and Huxley in 1952, it was first detected and measured more than 20 years later by Armstrong and Bezanilla. Ultimately, explaining the voltage-gating mechanism of Kv channels in molecular terms requires gaining knowledge of the active and resting conformations, and then showing how those conformations are able to account for the experimentally observed gating charge Delta-Q. Our strategy is to first carefully construct atomic models of the active and resting states of Kv channels that are consistent with all available experimental information using protein structure prediction algorithms. We also have a novel method to compute the gating charge using all-atom MD. Pathak et al. have generated detailed atomic models of Kv1.2 in the open/active and closed/resting states using the Rosetta-Membrane structure prediction program. The model of the open/active state complements the information missing from the X-ray structure of the Kv1.2 channel used as a template, while the S1-S2, S2-S3, and S3-S4 loops in the voltage sensing domain were modeled de novo. These results offer a promising starting point to expand our understanding of voltage gating in Kv channels. Some critical issues must be addressed. Recently, the stability of those structural models in the complex dynamical environment of the lipid bilayer was ascertained using molecular dynamics (Khalili-Araghi et al, 2010) and the gating charge was calculated using a new theory of the membrane potential (Roux, 2008). Our long-term goal is to refine the atomic models of the closed/resting and open/activated states and test their ability to account for the experimentally observed gating charge using all-atom MD and explicit lipid membrane environment. In the coming year, we have 3 specific sub-projects: 1) We want to incorporate additional experimental constraints in the refinement of the resting down-state of the voltage sensor (Macpos et al, 2007). Ernesto Vargas (a graduate student at the University of Chicago) is carrying out this project. 2) We want to predict the effect of side-directed mutations on the channels, namely the effect of substitution along the transmembrane helix S4. David Medovoy (a graduate student at the University of Chicago) is carrying out this project. 3) We want we want to refine the 3d structure of the bacterial voltage-gated channel KvAP using electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR). We will use a new mmethod that has been develop by us (Sompornpisut et al, 2008) and tested on other channels (Vasquez et al, 2008). This work will be carried out by a visiting scholar (Rong Shen). We had originally requested 250K nodehours for the fiscal year, but only half of that, 125K was granted by the Allocation committee. These systems run NAMD on 25 cores at a rate of about 1 day/nanosecond of MD. For a total of 50 ns of simulation total for the 3 projects means that we need about 300,000 nodehours. REFERENCES Pathak, M.M., V. Yarov-Yarovoy, G. Agarwal, B. Roux, P. Barth, S. Kohout, F. Tombola, and E. Y. Isacoff. (2007). "Closing in on the Resting State of the Shaker K+ Channel." Neuron 56, 124-140. Campos, F.V., B. Chanda, B. Roux, and F. Bezanilla. (2007). "Two Atomic Constraints Unambiguously Position the S4 Segment Relative to S1 and S2 Segments in the Closed State of Shaker K Channel." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 104, 7904-7909. Sompornpisut, P., B. Roux, and E. Perozo. 2008. Structural refinement of membrane proteins by restrained molecular dynamics and solvent accessibility data. Biophys 95:5349-5361. Vasquez, V., M. Sotomayor, D. M. Cortes, B. Roux, K. Schulten, and E. Perozo. 2008. Three-dimensional architecture of membrane-embedded MscS in the closed conformation. J Mol Biol 378:55-70. Pan, A.C., D. Sezer, and B. Roux. (2008). "Finding Transition Pathways Using the String Method with Swarms of Trajectories." J Phys Chem B 112, 3432-3440. Roux, B. 2008. The membrane potential and its representation by a constant electric field in computer simulations. Biophys J 95:4205-4216. Khalili-Araghi, F., V. Jogini, V. Yarov-Yarovoy, E. Tajkhorshid, B. Roux, and K. Schulten. 2010. Calculation of the gating charge for the Kv1.2 voltage-activated potassium channel. Biophys J 98:2189-2198. Project URL: http://thallium.bsd.uchicago.edu/RouxLab/ Current FY Hours Used: undetermined amount New FY Requested allocation: 300000 Justification: We had originally requested 250K nodehours for the fiscal year, but only half of that, 125K was granted by the Allocation committee. These systems run NAMD on 25 cores at a rate of about 1 day/nanosecond of MD. For a total of 50 ns of simulation total for the 3 projects means that we need about 300,000 nodehours. For the resources, we expect to be using NAMD runs of up to 256 CPU. This amounts to: 256 CPU * 24 hours * 50 days = ~300,000 Fusion will be an excellent platform to establish and execute the string method algorithm. Thank You, The LCRC Accounts System